Muruzond, the corrupted future self of the Aspect of Time Nozdormu, is attempting to destroy the very fabric of reality. Traveling 10.000 years back in time, to the middle of the Burning Legion’s first invasion of Azeroth, he convinced young Illidan Stormrage to forsake his people and embrace the gifts of the Mad Titan Sargeras, forever changing the course of history. But the deranged dragon might have bitten off more than he can chew, as his actions forced the Army of Light to arrive and claim a new Chosen, and the Sisterhood of Elune to invoke the Night Warrior, and tap into even darker powers. Now we have to fight alongside the legendary heroes of the War of the Ancients to repel demonic hordes and the Infinite Dragonflight alike, as a massive time vortex threatens to tear the world apart in… Sundering Time, a Hearthstone custom expansion.
Everyone that logs in during the expansion’s launch week (or opens a Sundering Time pack any time after that) will receive Muruzond the Infinite, a neutral legendary minion, for free. Putting Muruzond in your deck means that at the start of the game a permanent Time Vortex will appear on your side of the board, dealing damage to you at the end of each of your turns. But with great risk come big rewards, as the Time Vortex allows you to harness the power of the expansion’s new keyword: Warped. Minions with Warped gain special abilities when adjacent to the Time Vortex, helping you kill your opponent before the Time Vortex kills you… hopefully.
I'll go through this set card by card! Neutrals first.
Neutral:
Peculiar Hermit: Great flavour, interesting in a Druid deck that has Crystalsong Portal.
Blooming Lasher: Very weak. 1 mana 0/2 in neutral is a very low tempo play and only becomes an Enchanted Raven on turn 2.
Reckless Quel'dorei: This actually depicts a shal'dorei i.e. nightborne. This is an extremely powerful turn 1 play with no immediate downside. In fact, it could synergize with egg cards quite nicely. I'd say it's too powerful.
Phasing Fox: I don't really see why this needs the swap synergy as it usually won't last for more than a turn otherwise. Not powerful enough to put in a Time Vortex deck – it's not even really an upside.
Displaced Corsair: A 1 mana 2/2 is once again not very powerful. I'd say this could be a 1/2 easily.
Zin-Azshari Rat: This is a fun card for all the combos it enables, but I don't really get the flavour? Why is this rat able to give you spells? And why any spells?
Parasitic Corruptor: There is too much text here. Additionally, the effect is overcomplicated. It would be more intuitive and simply more useful if the deathrattle was just part of the battlecry instead – it doesn't need to be a Voodoo Doll reprint. The effect you're giving it is also quite powerful even with it being a deathrattle. This card needs a rethink.
Glassjaw Fiend: Reminds me of Anima Golem. However, I think this is a lot better, being an early game card. Maybe having Reckless Quel'dorei and Glassjaw Fiend is too much overstatting for one expansion? I'm not sure about it.
Coldlight Elder: Good – just a small Violet Teacher with murloc synergy. I like it.
Azsuna Alchemist: How do these stack? For instance, I play Dalaran Mage and two Azsuna Alchemists. The Dalaran Mage subsequently dies. Do both Alchemists lose Spell Damage or does the aura of one make the other's persist?
Acidblood Bogbeast: This is very strangely worded. I'm not actually sure how I would fix it, but it's very difficult to read. "While damaged, at the end of your turn, deal 1 damage to all enemy minions." It's still janky. The balance is fine otherwise. I wouldn't put 'beast' in the name if it's not a beast though.
Wormhole Agitator: ahhh parasitic card. At least it has vanilla stats. I'm not sure why this is a good effect because it's only useful as a... soft counter? For Murozond decks. Even then it's a very weak effect and seems like a waste of deck space.
Polarity Reverser: Another parasitic card... but it's somewhat more useful than the previous one. I don't think either of these cards would see play.
Time Capsule: This is a pretty good egg. It's actually better than Runic Egg because it doesn't put you closer to fatigue and samples only from your OG deck. Thumbs up.
Displaced Defender: I debate whether this is better or worse than Stonehill Defender. For fatigue and value generation it's worse. For tutoring it's better. It really does depend on the deck.
Fel-touched Angler: Very scary card. Sticky murlocs with +3 attack buff with a new body to boot could be oppressive indeed, especially when you pair this with Coldlight Elder.
Time-Lost Protodrake: Clarification on Warped: is this an aura trigger like Enrage or a pseudo-Battlecry? Does it lose rush if you put something between it and the Time Vortex?
Solicitous Priestess: There is no reason why this shouldn't be restricted to targeting minions. Heroes don't have Deathrattles.
Paradox Incubator: Muckmorpher? Very slow "eggy" card that has a) a deckbuilding restriction and b) no immediate impact. Another clarification: This can't trigger multiple times, right? It obviously loses its text/doesn't remember being a Paradox Incubator after it transforms.
Chromie: I like her. I do think that "Parallel Universe" should transform the minions into ones of the same Cost –– but that weakens the effect. I'd change the flavour somewhat.
Time Guardian: Oof more parasitism. I don't think this is a very good card to print, even though it's a good tempo play. The fact that one of the Time Guardians dies renders the other's deathrattle useless, and that feels awkward to play with.
Congested Ooze: Really like this card.
Hyjal Harpy: Nice pack filler.
Demonsbane Dervish: Oof, very punishing to Warlock. Light's Champion is I think the only demon-hate card in neutral and that has a very 'meh' effect. This is a bit more polarizing so I'd at least lose the +1/+1.
Indomitable Brave: I love this effect. Interesting to play around and take advantage of.
Palace Handmaiden: Archmage Vargoth? Is that you? In all seriousness, this is probably too powerful an effect to exist. Imagine Warlocks running Twisting Nether and Mages using Flamestrike with this card, and building up their own tempo with minions in between. I imagine this would be bonkers in wild. Also crazy with Priest resurrect spells and even the legendary spells like Kangor's Endless Army.
Temple Archivist: Good card. Good flavour. A+
Untamed Gardener: Very interesting. The fact that it can target itself and that your opponent can also proc it makes it very dangerous but it sucks against zoo decks. I don't exactly see what deck you do play this in because it costs quite a bit, it requires spells (which zoo decks don't run so many of) and can hit your opponent's minions. Unfortunately this just isn't the statline for this card. I'd say bump it down to a 3 mana 2/5 or a 4 mana 2/7.
Sentinel Ward: The fact that it has attack is puzzling. It's very much a static object, so the flavour is off on that point. Aside from that, it's just a +1/+1/+1 on Spectral Knight, so I guess that's okay.
Captain Varo'then: This is brutal. It effectively neuters combo decks and allows aggro/midrange to be very dominant. I'm not sure 6 mana is okay on this.
Shen'dralar Sage: This is a nice snowball-y card and I hate it in Rogue.
Unbound Mana Storm: I don't think this would be played, but I like the idea. The name is pretty long and cumbersome, however.
Displaced Doomsayer: Funny and balanced.
Meticulous Planner: Art and statline/effect don't mesh for me.
Infinite Collaborator: Hogger with a weird condition doesn't cut it for me. I also don't see the point of summoning Dragons when most of the synergy comes from holding them (exception for Onyxia because Classic didn't have dragon synergies).
Legion Devastator: I like the balance and effect, but not sure about the flavour of it being a Fel Reaver. If you could explain it I'd probably be okay with it.
Zheros, Eternity's Heart: This doesn't feel like a legendary effect to me. Card draw is pretty 'meh' and this doesn't do anything the turn it's played.
Anachronos: Now this is crazy. You might be able to do some insane combos with this card... I'm looking at Jepeto for this one, but I guess he already does that on his own.
Mo'arg Warbringer: While Feeding Time stuck on a 3 mana 4/3 is something that can be done, I'm not sure that it should. Since it's a common I'll let it slide. For comparison however, I'd see North Sea Kraken for balance: 9 mana 9/7 that deals 4 to anything vs. 8 mana 7/6 that deals 3 to a minion. Makes me think this is quite underpowered.
Stomping Crystalmaw: Feels broken. I know the new 9/9 Rush for 9 is powerful – in arena especially – but a 7/6 deal 7 damage for 8 mana seems much more powerful (even compare it to Mo'arg Warbringer). I'd nerf the attack to 5 or 6.
Continuum Protector: No complaints here.
Murozond the Infinite: I do feel like the Time Vortex token has too much going on (esp. with the minions thing) but that's up to you. I'm also not sure about Murozond having that Warped effect. Seems tacked on.
Snobby Aristocrat: Well, here we go with the evolve nerfs.
Advance Scout: Fair enough.
Antinomious Giant: I don't know what's going on with the name, but since this expansion reminds me of WotOG, would you have liked a giant that said "Costs (1) less for each Attack of your C'thun"? I don't think that is the kind of parasitism we need here. Since these giants are very powerful with time vortex it feels like you need them if you want to play that deck, which you shouldn't.
Thank you for taking the time to give such detailed feedback and for your kind words. I'll ignore those (¯\_(ツ)_/¯) and try to answer some of your concerns:
2. Blooming Lasher: Counterpoint: It is neutral Enchanted Raven if it isn't removed immediately, with a chance to get even bigger.
3. Reckless Quel'dorei: This xpac needed a LOT of night elf art, I took what I could get (also, Malygos is actually Kalecgos, and Light's Justice is held by a dwarf priest, Hearthstone art is a house of lies :P). In my view, this is significantly riskier to run that Saronite Taskmaster. It is easier to kill and the DR decimates token boards, it'll take 1-2 minions with it when it dies. Powerful, yes (especially coupled with a Frothing Berserker). Overpower? I don't think so.
4. Phasing Fox: The effect triggers at the end of each turn, meaning it will always be Dire Mole during your opponent's turn, and Wolfrider during yours (unless damaged), this makes it exceptionally sticky and versatile.
5. Displaced Corsair: Quite right. This was literally the last card I made, didn't put much though into it.
6. Zin-Azshari Rat: Zin-Azshari, the capital of the first night elf empire, was Dalaran on steroids. Living in that runoff had an effect on the little bugger. (Note: I made this before Shimmerfly was revealed, too close to it to be printed now.)
7. Parasitic Corruptor: Fair, will remake this.
8. Glassjaw Fiend: Could be one overstated minion too many, but since they have direct antisynergy with each other I thought I could get away with it.
10. Azsuna Alchemist: If you have 2 of those they can't feed off of each other. The effect checks for the presence of a permanent Spell Damage aura. In your example, the moment the Dalaran Mage died, both Azsuna Alchemists would lose Spell Damage simultaneously.
11. Acidblood Bogbeast: Every other formerly-Enrage card has "while damaged" at the end of the effect, so I used that as a starting point. I agree it is less than ideal.
12-13. Wormhole Agitator and Polarity Reverser: I'll be completely honest: I fell in love with this time-trotting scientist couple (they've been married for 57 years) and they survived a lot of purges and revisions when they probably shouldn't have (and they helped the Giant stick around too). Would they ever see play? Probably not, although I can imagine a combo deck where you run Agitator in order to get your Giants out fast and then Reverser to heal yourself back up.
16. Fel-touched Angler: I'm a little confused, the Murlocs that get the buff are the opposite of sticky, they die at the end of the turn.
17. Time-Lost Protodrake: The Time Vortex gives out an activate_Warped aura for the board spots adjacent to it. If you put something between Time-Lost and the Vortex it will lose the +1 Attack (and Rush, if it is the turn you played it).
18. Solicitous Priestess: I wanted the heal to be usable on face in a pinch, but probably right that it would be more elegant if it was minion only.
19. Paradox Incubator: Another card that had its thunder stolen by Rise of Shadows. In hindsight probably a bit too powerful, especially with all the synergies RoS added for this type of effect. And yes, it only transforms once.
21. Time Guardian: If one dies, the second DR does nothing... unless it does. This xpac has a lot of DR synergies, and the DR doesn't specify "another". You can use the DR to buff the minion itself!
24. Demonsbane Dervish: You are probably right. I made this because a. felt very on flavour to add anti-Demon tech in an xpac taking place during the War of the Ancients and b. I added some beefy Demons for Warlock. I'll take another look at the balance.
26. Palace Handmaiden: Yet another card that was made before the RoS reveals. You are right, being able to replicate any spell and holding it indefinitely is definitely too strong when the effects are paired together. I will probably add a cap on the mana cost of the spell that can be replicated.
29. Sentinel Ward: It is an arcane pylon, it has Attack because it can zap you. Other than that, packfiller.
30. Captain Varo'then: I'm not sure anti-combo is what I'd call this card. Sure, it will force you to delay your combo by 1 turn but it doesn't destroy it. I see 2 possible uses for this: a. Anti-agro: Put a 3/6 Taunt on the way that will probably take two trades to kill and force the opponent to add just one minion on the board, giving you time to find answers and stabilise, or b. Agro: Build a lethal board, play Varo'then and limit the chances the opponent can answer it.
34. Meticulous Planner: Planning ahead allows you to be ready, and protects your compatriots, hence the high Health taunt. But being too fussy means that efficiency suffers, hence the downside. Meticulous probably has too positive a connotation, I should replace it with a more negative descriptor.
35. Infinite Collaborator: The tokens being Dragons doesn't mean anything, it's just flavour. What I find interesting about this card is the friction it creates with its own effect: the tokens spawn on either side of the minion, meaning that unless you kill off the one next to the Vortex, it won't activate next turn. Makes for some interesting decisions for both you and the opponent.
36. Legion Devastator: Fel Reavers were introduced in the Burning Crusade, but have since been retconned to be a core part of the Legion arsenal since the very beginning. Having one in the War of the Ancients makes as much sense as anything.
37. Zheros, Eternity's Heart: "For the rest of the game" effects are pretty powerful, and honestly, I think this one is on the strong side. Playing this means that a midrange deck will basically never run out of steam until fatigue.
39. Mo'arg Warbringer: Probably underpowered since it is a weak spell on a vanilla body, but between the Demon tag on all the bodies, and the fact that it is 4 bodies in 1 card, I could see uses for it. And as you said, it's a common, I'd rather err on the side of weakness.
40. Stomping Crystalmaw: I could flip the stats to 6/7, but either way this wouldn't see constructed play. It's the obligatory arena card of the set.
42. Murozond the Infinite: As the flagship legendary of the set, I felt it was important to introduce the keyword with it, but didn't want to make it too wordy, so I went for a simple effect. Also, I miss the Lich King.
45. Antinomious Giant: As I said in 12-13, this is a bit of a remnant. I would at the very least increase the mana cost so you would have to play a few Warped minions to even be a vanilla 8/8/8. Also, "antinomious" means self-contradictory, it is what you use if you've already used "paradox" in a another card :P
Muruzond, the corrupted future self of the Aspect of Time Nozdormu, is attempting to destroy the very fabric of reality. Traveling 10.000 years back in time, to the middle of the Burning Legion’s first invasion of Azeroth, he convinced young Illidan Stormrage to forsake his people and embrace the gifts of the Mad Titan Sargeras, forever changing the course of history. But the deranged dragon might have bitten off more than he can chew, as his actions forced the Army of Light to arrive and claim a new Chosen, and the Sisterhood of Elune to invoke the Night Warrior, and tap into even darker powers. Now we have to fight alongside the legendary heroes of the War of the Ancients to repel demonic hordes and the Infinite Dragonflight alike, as a massive time vortex threatens to tear the world apart in… Sundering Time, a Hearthstone custom expansion.
Everyone that logs in during the expansion’s launch week (or opens a Sundering Time pack any time after that) will receive Muruzond the Infinite, a neutral legendary minion, for free. Putting Muruzond in your deck means that at the start of the game a permanent Time Vortex will appear on your side of the board, dealing damage to you at the end of each of your turns. But with great risk come big rewards, as the Time Vortex allows you to harness the power of the expansion’s new keyword: Warped. Minions with Warped gain special abilities when adjacent to the Time Vortex, helping you kill your opponent before the Time Vortex kills you… hopefully.
http://www.hearthcards.net/setsandclasses/#3466-Sundering-Time
bump
I'll go through this set card by card! Neutrals first.
Neutral:
please consider voting for my custom class in the fan creations competition :]
• TRIALS IN AUCHINDOUN - A Custom Hearthstone Adventure (4th Wing!) • New and Interesting Hearthstone Mechanics (by me!) •
Thank you for taking the time to give such detailed feedback and for your kind words. I'll ignore those (¯\_(ツ)_/¯) and try to answer some of your concerns:
2. Blooming Lasher: Counterpoint: It is neutral Enchanted Raven if it isn't removed immediately, with a chance to get even bigger.
3. Reckless Quel'dorei: This xpac needed a LOT of night elf art, I took what I could get (also, Malygos is actually Kalecgos, and Light's Justice is held by a dwarf priest, Hearthstone art is a house of lies :P). In my view, this is significantly riskier to run that Saronite Taskmaster. It is easier to kill and the DR decimates token boards, it'll take 1-2 minions with it when it dies. Powerful, yes (especially coupled with a Frothing Berserker). Overpower? I don't think so.
4. Phasing Fox: The effect triggers at the end of each turn, meaning it will always be Dire Mole during your opponent's turn, and Wolfrider during yours (unless damaged), this makes it exceptionally sticky and versatile.
5. Displaced Corsair: Quite right. This was literally the last card I made, didn't put much though into it.
6. Zin-Azshari Rat: Zin-Azshari, the capital of the first night elf empire, was Dalaran on steroids. Living in that runoff had an effect on the little bugger. (Note: I made this before Shimmerfly was revealed, too close to it to be printed now.)
7. Parasitic Corruptor: Fair, will remake this.
8. Glassjaw Fiend: Could be one overstated minion too many, but since they have direct antisynergy with each other I thought I could get away with it.
10. Azsuna Alchemist: If you have 2 of those they can't feed off of each other. The effect checks for the presence of a permanent Spell Damage aura. In your example, the moment the Dalaran Mage died, both Azsuna Alchemists would lose Spell Damage simultaneously.
11. Acidblood Bogbeast: Every other formerly-Enrage card has "while damaged" at the end of the effect, so I used that as a starting point. I agree it is less than ideal.
12-13. Wormhole Agitator and Polarity Reverser: I'll be completely honest: I fell in love with this time-trotting scientist couple (they've been married for 57 years) and they survived a lot of purges and revisions when they probably shouldn't have (and they helped the Giant stick around too). Would they ever see play? Probably not, although I can imagine a combo deck where you run Agitator in order to get your Giants out fast and then Reverser to heal yourself back up.
16. Fel-touched Angler: I'm a little confused, the Murlocs that get the buff are the opposite of sticky, they die at the end of the turn.
17. Time-Lost Protodrake: The Time Vortex gives out an activate_Warped aura for the board spots adjacent to it. If you put something between Time-Lost and the Vortex it will lose the +1 Attack (and Rush, if it is the turn you played it).
18. Solicitous Priestess: I wanted the heal to be usable on face in a pinch, but probably right that it would be more elegant if it was minion only.
19. Paradox Incubator: Another card that had its thunder stolen by Rise of Shadows. In hindsight probably a bit too powerful, especially with all the synergies RoS added for this type of effect. And yes, it only transforms once.
21. Time Guardian: If one dies, the second DR does nothing... unless it does. This xpac has a lot of DR synergies, and the DR doesn't specify "another". You can use the DR to buff the minion itself!
24. Demonsbane Dervish: You are probably right. I made this because a. felt very on flavour to add anti-Demon tech in an xpac taking place during the War of the Ancients and b. I added some beefy Demons for Warlock. I'll take another look at the balance.
26. Palace Handmaiden: Yet another card that was made before the RoS reveals. You are right, being able to replicate any spell and holding it indefinitely is definitely too strong when the effects are paired together. I will probably add a cap on the mana cost of the spell that can be replicated.
29. Sentinel Ward: It is an arcane pylon, it has Attack because it can zap you. Other than that, packfiller.
30. Captain Varo'then: I'm not sure anti-combo is what I'd call this card. Sure, it will force you to delay your combo by 1 turn but it doesn't destroy it. I see 2 possible uses for this: a. Anti-agro: Put a 3/6 Taunt on the way that will probably take two trades to kill and force the opponent to add just one minion on the board, giving you time to find answers and stabilise, or b. Agro: Build a lethal board, play Varo'then and limit the chances the opponent can answer it.
34. Meticulous Planner: Planning ahead allows you to be ready, and protects your compatriots, hence the high Health taunt. But being too fussy means that efficiency suffers, hence the downside. Meticulous probably has too positive a connotation, I should replace it with a more negative descriptor.
35. Infinite Collaborator: The tokens being Dragons doesn't mean anything, it's just flavour. What I find interesting about this card is the friction it creates with its own effect: the tokens spawn on either side of the minion, meaning that unless you kill off the one next to the Vortex, it won't activate next turn. Makes for some interesting decisions for both you and the opponent.
36. Legion Devastator: Fel Reavers were introduced in the Burning Crusade, but have since been retconned to be a core part of the Legion arsenal since the very beginning. Having one in the War of the Ancients makes as much sense as anything.
37. Zheros, Eternity's Heart: "For the rest of the game" effects are pretty powerful, and honestly, I think this one is on the strong side. Playing this means that a midrange deck will basically never run out of steam until fatigue.
39. Mo'arg Warbringer: Probably underpowered since it is a weak spell on a vanilla body, but between the Demon tag on all the bodies, and the fact that it is 4 bodies in 1 card, I could see uses for it. And as you said, it's a common, I'd rather err on the side of weakness.
40. Stomping Crystalmaw: I could flip the stats to 6/7, but either way this wouldn't see constructed play. It's the obligatory arena card of the set.
42. Murozond the Infinite: As the flagship legendary of the set, I felt it was important to introduce the keyword with it, but didn't want to make it too wordy, so I went for a simple effect. Also, I miss the Lich King.
45. Antinomious Giant: As I said in 12-13, this is a bit of a remnant. I would at the very least increase the mana cost so you would have to play a few Warped minions to even be a vanilla 8/8/8. Also, "antinomious" means self-contradictory, it is what you use if you've already used "paradox" in a another card :P
Keep the feedback coming, deeply appreciated!